Re: Using Macros in Lisp

[Bill St. Clair <bill>]

   >Unfortunately, I don't know of any text that describes writing anything
   >other than trivial macros.  Probably, the best thing to do is to look at
   Too true.  Which is why macros are often misunderstood or understood but
   not used.  Many students end up never seeing (and certainly not writing) a
   useful macro that deserves to exist--only silly little examples.  Any REAL
   macro experts out there want to make a quick buck, a mini-text on macros
   with honest-to-goodness exercises would definitely be the way to go.  Hell,
   I'd buy it, and I like to think of myself as half-decent at writing macros.
   
I liked Drew McDermott's (and somebody else whose name I've forgotten
at the moment) "Artificial Intelligence Programming".  I haven't seen
a recent edition of it, but it showed how to implement quasi-quote
(called backquote "`") and gave many examples.  Understanding
backquote is at least a small component of understanding how to write
macros.